We’re real missionaries now! We’re sleeping under mosquito netting! :)

Last week, Bethany told you all about what we will be doing in the upcoming weeks. Today, I thought I would fill you in on what did happen last week. We have had a pretty quiet week here at home base in Nellore. The weather is beginning to get warmer (it has been consistently above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the last week) and people are slowing down in proportion. David had to be away from Wednesday evening until very early Saturday moring visiting a village that is some distance away. He felt it was best for us to remain here because he was concerned for our health in this particular village. So we have spent our time in worship and prayer, scripture memorization, reading, and sewing. We particularly enjoy combining these last two, and we have spent many hours with Bethany reading out loud while I (Chelsea) sew. (If you’re wondering what we have found that requires so much needle work, we still have clothes which were given to us in need of alterations and I have been working on those – to my great satisfaction and with significant improvement in my skills as a seamstress.)

The book of the week in our industrious book club is “Growing in the Prophetic,” by Mike Bickle. We have been learning a great deal both from reading and from our discussions. We have also been enjoying his perspective; those of you who know who Mike Bickle is (the senior pastor at IHOP-KC : International House Of Prayer-Kansas City) may not have realized that he is from a very conservative evangelical background and for the first few years of his ministry was anti-charismatic before being “ambushed by God.” (For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, please feel free to email Bethany or myself and we will do our best to answer your questions or point you in the right direction.)

Our reading and discussions revealed an interesting paradigm we have both held concerning prophets, the prophetic, and the work of the Holy Spirit. We are in the process of revaluating our thoughts on the place of prophetic ministry in the modern-day church. We thought we would share with you part of our discussion and let you come to your own conclusions. Please feel free to comment with your opinions.

NOTE: I have summarized only one chapter of "Growing in the Prophetic," this post is not intended to be a full summary of the book. I have done my best to clearly represent which thoughts are mine/ours and which are Mike's, but please do not judge Mike Bickle based solely on my words here. Also, these are topics that Bethany and I are still discussing and wrestling with. If you desire to learn more about any of the things mentioned here, I recommend that you read "Growing in the Prophetic." I believe it is valuable and worth the effort to read and understand the points made; I also recommend you read the last chapter first, and then read the whole book.

Old Testament Prophets vs. New Testament Prophets

Mike Bickle states, and we have come to agree for ourselves, that most people when they think about prophesy picture Old Testament prophets. “When people first hear of someone being called a prophet, they might think of a man with wild hair and fiery eyes crying out against sin and calling fire down from heaven” (pg 93) like Elijah and Moses. However, he argues that New Testament prophets have a different role, operate under a different set of instructions, and should be evaluated according to different standards than Old Testament prophets.

Old Testament prophets were chosen by God primarily to correct God’s people when they were sinning, to offer guidance for the kings, and to predict the future. Men like Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were set apart from God’s people to speak the “very words of God.” Old Testament prophets had significant influence over the direction of God’s people, and because of their responsibility they also paid a high price for failing to precisely relay God’s words to His people; they were stoned to death for misrepresenting God’s words even once (Duet. 18:20).

New Testament prophets operate under very different circumstances and direction. The biggest difference between God’s people in the Old and New Testaments is that in the New Testament all believers have the Holy Spirit and therefore have the ability to judge between right and wrong. So those who prophecy, or speak out the words and/or impressions which they hear from the Lord, today are treated very differently than before the Holy Spirit was available to all God’s people. Rather than being instructed to listen to and obey the all the words of the prophet and kill the messenger if the things they foretell do not happen (Duet. 18:18-20), we are told “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast to what is good. Avoid every kind of evil.” (1 Thess. 5:19-22). Mike sees the primary role of prophecy today as directed toward the church for the “purpose of encouragement, exhortation, and comfort” (pg. 96, 1 Cor 14:3). He also believes that we see fewer persons in the role of “prophet” and more who have occasional, or regular, prophetic words, or that “the gift of prophecy, the prophetic ministry and the word of the Lord are diffused and distributed throughout the entire body of Christ” (pg. 95).

For those of you who are still uncertain about what we mean by prophecy in New Testament terms, let me clarify. We are talking about everything from the subtle impression to pray for someone without having a specific reason to a word of encouragement or correction for a local church body or community to a prediction of future events followed clearly miraculous signs in the heavens or on earth.

“Usually people have no problem with the woman in the prayer group who feels a burden to pray for someone, who senses the Holy Spirit leading her prayer, and who states that God is ‘impressing’ something on her hear. All of this is in a package that most people are familiar with and understand. But if she speaks up during the Sunday morning service in her non-charismatic church and loudly proclaims her revelation interspersed with ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ she could get a significantly different response. Here are the same message, but delivered in a very different package” (pg. 101) While we are not advocating everything that this book says, we

So the question Bethany and I have been asking ourselves and each other is: what role does God intend for prophecy to play in local churches today?

We are instructed “not to despise prophecy” and told to “…be eager to prophesy,” (1 Cor 14:39), but this rubs against much of our (Bethany and my) traditional evangelical training. Is the evangelical church at large missing out on hearing from the Lord in a powerful personal way? Or are Mike and others like him way beyond the bounds of what is Biblical?

BTW: my summary of Mike's definition of the essence of prophecy is, revealing the heart of God to His people and to unbelievers.

What do you think?